To play or not to play, that is the question

TRUE enough, ‘have boots, will travel’ could be Robbie Keane’s motto. But when it comes to analysis of the Irish captain’s career, it seems to me there’s often too much concentration on the travel and not enough on the boots.

Yes, Keane has done the rounds, from Wolves via Coventry, Inter, Leeds, Spurs, Liverpool, Spurs again and now to Celtic, and with a far from cast-iron guarantee that this latest loan move will be the 29-year-old’s final port of call. But it’s not as if he’s eaten up the miles in order to amass an interesting postcard collection. Football is Keane’s passport and goals are his business, and if that means packing the suitcase again – especially when it’s clear that he’s no longer wanted where he is – then so be it.

Of course, Harry Redknapp has said that he really wanted to keep Keane at White Hart Lane, but he would say that, wouldn’t he? Just as the gaffer was there to welcome the prodigal son home from his unhappy exile in Liverpool, he knows that he can’t afford to rule out the possibility of another reconciliation between the two at White Hart Lane.